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Monday, April 8, 2013

Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead: Giveaway

Liar & Spy is
the first Rebecca Stead (Newbery Medal Winner for When You Reach Me) book I’ve read. The title caught my eye, but the
romp-in-the-park, spot-on middle grade voice kept me turning page after page to
see what would become of the narrator Georges (the S is silent), and these
other characters with cool names: Safer, Bob English Who Draws, Pigeon, Candy
and Mr. X.

Speaking of voice,
here’s the opening paragraph: There’s
this totally false map of the human tongue. It’s supposed to show where we
taste different things, like salty on the side of the tongue, sweet on the
front, bitter in the back. Some guy drew it a hundred years ago, and people
have been forcing kids to memorize it ever since.

Here’s some
abbreviated cover copy without any spoilers: Seventh grader Georges moves into a Brooklyn apartment building and
meets Safer, a twelve-year-old self-appointed spy. Georges becomes Safer's
first spy recruit. His assignment? Tracking the mysterious Mr. X, who lives in
the apartment upstairs. But as Safer becomes more demanding, Georges starts to
wonder: what is a lie, and what is a game? How far is too far to go for your
only friend?

I read the first few
pages of Liar & Spy to my fifth grade class when we were studying the five
senses. They loved it! If I could work it in I’d read them the whole book
because it has that captivating read aloud quality that some books have.

I’m giving away one
hardcover copy of Liar and Spy. Just leave a comment anytime between now and
midnight Thursday Eastern Time to be considered.

10 comments:

My boys are at a very particular age when it comes to agreed read alouds. This is something we read in the fall, and both guys took it to their rooms to finish before I did! Stead is a marvel and a great author to study for craft.

Hi, I'm a YA writer with a fourth grade reluctant reader. We read together, and he considers a spy and their adventures second only to Star Wars and Indiana Jones. I hereby place my hat in the ring for my son, Derek, a compassionate hero. May the force be with him!

I've already read LIAR & SPY, but I borrowed a copy from the library, so I'd love to have one of my own! It wasn't quite as good as WHEN YOU REACH ME (at least in my opinion), but that's like saying cookie dough ice cream isn't quite as good as triple chocolate brownie:)

Thanks for offering this giveaway. So nice to own a new book. I've read "When You Reach Me " by Rebecca Stead and enjoyed. I've heard good thing about this one also. Was going to waitlist at my library but I'm already at the maximum allowed books to waitlist :)Good luck to all participants.

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